(Corrects time frame in paragraph 8)
* Sisi promises economy will pick up in six months
* Says Egyptians are coping well with austerity
* Many in Cairo decry rising prices
By Amina Ismail
CAIRO, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Egyptians have been assured by their president that the country's battered economy will pick up in six months and they are coping "brilliantly" with austerity. But on the streets of Cairo it is hard to find people who agree.
In making his forecast last month, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi urged businessmen and investors to help the government rein in price rises. He also praised Egyptians for how they had dealt with tough economic reforms.
But while Egypt has floated its currency with the aim of easing a shortage of the dollars it needs to import goods, taxes have gone up, subsidies have been removed and inflation at around 20 percent is eating away at living standards, hitting the poor hardest.
Economists say prices are expected to rise again this year as a result of the government's reforms, although Sisi said people were coping well.
"The Egyptian people have succeeded brilliantly in this test," the president said.
That rings hollow with many Egyptians already struggling to get by.
Hind Adel Mohamed, a 30-year-old Cairo housewife, said her husband, a day labourer, cannot find work and rising prices mean she cannot feed her family properly.
Her response was to stage a dramatic protest near Tahrir Square, scene of the revolution that toppled president Hosni Mubarak six years ago.
Climbing to the top of a giant advertising billboard in late November, she removed light bulbs from the hoarding and threw them at the crowds below. She also threatened to jump.
"I went and took a shower at 4 a.m. that day, combed my hair and left home at 6 a.m.," she recalled in an interview with Reuters.
"I got on a bus, looking for a high place so that someone from the government would come and talk to me, and if no one showed up, I would have thrown myself off and said it's the government's fault."
In the end, she allowed herself to be rescued, but Sisi's assurance that the economy will pick up in six months does not impress her.
"We are unable to bear six hours, how could we bear six months?" she said.
LIFE IS DIFFICULT
Ahmed Attaah, a rickshaw driver, agreed, saying prices have all gone up and life has become very difficult.
"What are people going to do in the next six months, eat each other? We hope that things get better, but prices that go up never go down again," he said.
Things can also be difficult for Egyptians if they fall sick.